There are numerous accidents between vehicles and pedestrians at dusk or night due to the inability of drivers to properly see pedestrians. This is especially a difficulty for joggers who may be taking unusual pathways with respect to approaching vehicles. While pedestrians, including joggers, who wish to be visible at night time to approaching vehicles can wear reflective clothing, sometimes it is impractical to wear reflective clothing, and under some circumstances reflective clothing does not provide suitable visibility.
According to the present invention, a safety stick is provided for use by pedestrians to make the pedestrians more visible to approaching traffic. The safety stick not only makes the pedestrian highly visible, but can have other purposes as well. For example, the stick can be of sufficient length and strength so that it may be utilized as a walking stick, and/or the stick may be used for self-defense, for example if a jogger is attacked by a dog.
The safety stick according to the invention has a shaft with first and second ends. Preferably the shaft is a wooden dowel having a diameter of between about one-half inch and one inch (e.g. three-quarter inch), and a length that is great enough so that it is visible and can be used for other purposes. Typically, the length will be about 20 inches or more, e.g. about 24 inches when specifically designed to be used by joggers, and about 36 inches when specifically designed to function as a walking stick too.
At the first end of the safety stick a grip is provided. The grip may be a foam suede grip of the type that is conventionally available, typically formed by a dipping process. At the second end of the stick, an end cap can be provided, such as a hard plastic cap. Also it is desirable to provide a wrist strap adjacent the grip and connected to the shaft by connecting means. The connecting means preferably comprises a breakaway connection (e.g. a metal swivel connection) to effect detachment of the strap from the shaft should a tension force greater than a predetermined amount (e.g. about 5-20 pounds, particularly about 8 pounds) be applied, as a safety feature.
To provide the safety aspects of the stick, there are means for providing high reflectivity of the shaft so that it can be readily seen. This high reflectivity can be provided by a reflective color paint (e.g. two coats of silver paint) on the shaft, covered with a coat of clear lacquer having reflective glass beads therein. The glass beads typically would be microspheres with a ratio of about two parts beads to one part lacquer by weight. Alternatively, the high reflectivity can be provided by wrapping the shaft with retroreflective tape (e.g. in a spiral configuration), with plastic tubing over the tape. The plastic tubing may be a pvc shrink tube, and clear lacquer may be applied over the shrink tube.
It is the primary object of the present invention to provide a safety stick that is simple yet effective. This and other objects of the invention will become clear from an inspection of the detailed description of the invention, and from the appended claims.